Two Top Associates of Colombian Narco-Terrorist Organization Found Guilty of Conspiring to Import Tons of Cocaine into the United States

U.S. Attorney’s Office
April 14, 2010

Southern District of New York(212) 637-2600

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, and JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special
Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York
Field Division ("DEA"), announced that JUAN JOSE MARTINEZ-VEGA,
a/k/a "Chiguiro," and ERMINSO CUEVAS CABRERA, a/k/a "Mincho"—two
of the top associates of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or "FARC")—were found guilty yesterday of conspiring to import ton-quantities
of cocaine into the United States. The FARC is Colombia's main
leftist rebel group and a United States Department of
State-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. The guilty
verdict returned yesterday follows a seven-week trial before
United States District Judge THOMAS F. HOGAN in District of
Columbia federal court.

According to the Indictment and evidence presented at
trial:

The FARC, which occupies large swaths of territory in
Colombia, is a hierarchical organization which, at its height
during the time of the conspiracy, was comprised of 12,000 to
18,000 members. At the lowest level, the FARC is made up of 77
distinct military units, called Fronts, organized by geographical
location. These in turn are grouped into seven "blocs." The
FARC is led by a seven-member Secretariat and a 27-member Central
General Statff, or Estado Mayor, responsible for setting the
cocaine policies of the FARC. The FARC is responsible for the
production of more than half the world's supply of cocaine and
nearly two-thirds of the cocaine imported into the United States,
and is the world's leading cocaine manufacturer. The FARC
initially involved itself in the cocaine and cocaine paste trade
by imposing a "tax" on individuals involved in every stage of
cocaine production. Later, in the 1990s, recognizing the profit
potential, FARC leadership ordered that the FARC become the
exclusive buyer of the raw cocaine paste used to make cocaine in
all areas under FARC occupation.

In the late 1990s, the FARC leadership met and voted
unanimously in favor of a number of resolutions, including
resolutions to: expand coca production in areas of Colombia under
FARC control; expand the FARC's international distribution
routes; increase the number of crystallization labs in which
cocaine paste would be converted into cocaine; appoint members
within each Front to be in charge of coca production; raise
prices that the FARC would pay to campesinos (peasant farmers)
from whom they purchased cocaine paste; and mandate that better
chemicals be used to increase the quality of cocaine paste.

MARTINEZ-VEGA worked as the FARC's chief associate in
its 16th Front, exchanging massive quantities of cocaine for tons
of weapons, explosives, ammunition and other logistical supplies.
In that capacity, MARTINEZ-VEGA coordinated a network of arms
suppliers and cocaine traffickers throughout Colombia and
neighboring countries.

CUEVAS CABRERA, the brother of FARC Southern Bloc
commander FABIAN RAMIREZ, worked as the chief of cocaine
manufacturing for the FARC's 14th Front. In that capacity,
CUEVAS CABRERA directed the weekly production of thousands of
pounds of cocaine at hidden jungle laboratories controlled by the
FARC and coordinated the sale and transportation of this cocaine.

The evidence at trial showed that MARTINEZ-VEGA
participated in acts of violence, including the murder of a
cocaine-laboratory operator, in furtherance of the
cocaine-trafficking conspiracy. The evidence further proved that
both MARTINEZ-VEGA and CUEVAS CABRERA conspired with others to
manufacture and distribute thousands of tons of cocaine in
Colombia, with the knowledge and intent that such cocaine would
be imported into the United States.

CUEVAS CABRERA was extradited from Colombia to the
United States in December 2007; MARTINEZ-VEGA was extradited from
Colombia to the United States in April 2008. The jury found
MARTINEZ-VEGA and CUEVAS CABRERA guilty of one count of
conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and
conspiring to distribute cocaine with the knowledge and intent that
it would be imported into the United States.

The offense for which MARTINEZ-VEGA and CUEVAS CABRERA
were found guilty carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. As part of its
extradition requests, however, the United States has previously
provided assurances to the government of Colombia that it will
not seek a life sentence for the defendants, but instead will ask
for a prison term of years. MARTINEZ-VEGA, 49, and CUEVAS
CABRERA, 51, are scheduled to be sentenced on July 21, 2010, in
District of Columbia federal court.

U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: "Yesterday
afternoon, a jury brought to justice Juan Jose Martinez-Vega and
Erminso Cuevas Cabrera, two top associates of the FARC, whose
criminal activities threatened the national security of both
Colombia and the United States. The guilty verdicts against
Martinez-Vega and Cuevas Cabrera strike significant blows against
the FARC's cocaine-trafficking operations and further disrupt the
primary source of income of an incredibly dangerous foreign
terrorist organization. We will continue to work with our
friends at the DEA, along with our other local, federal, and
international law enforcement partners, to combat narco-terrorism
here and around the world."

DEA Special Agent-in-Charge JOHN P. GILBRIDE stated:
"This investigation yielded the successful conviction of two
members of a violent narco-terrorist organization known as the
FARC. These convictions represent that DEA, our law enforcement
partners and our communities will not tolerate or condone the
illegal acts of Juan Jose Martinez-Vega and Erminso Cuevas
Cabrera and their criminal enterprise."

The investigation resulting in these charges was led by
the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of
New York, working with the New York Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Strike Force (which is comprised of agents and
officers of the DEA, the New York City Police Department, the
United States Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation
Division, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and
the New York State Police) and the DEA's Bogota, Colombia,
Country Office. The investigation, conducted under the auspices
of the Department of Justice's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Task Force Program, involved unprecedented cooperation from the
Colombian Military, the Colombian National Police, and the
Colombian Fiscalia. Mr. BHARARA praised all the law enforcement
partners involved in the investigation, and thanked the United States
Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs,
as well as Department of Justice Attachés in Bogota, for their
assistance in the extradition process.

This case is being prosecuted in the District of
Columbia by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern
District of New York. Special Assistant United States Attorneys
ERIC SNYDER, PABLO QUIÑONES, and RANDALL JACKSON from the
Office's new Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit are in
charge of the prosecution.